Falling Skies Exclusive: What Will Colin Cunningham Cook Up Next?

But Colin Cunningham has already made quite the impression on fans of this TNT hit, ever since he first appeared on hour two of the pilot and simply exchanged many words with Noah Wyle's Tom Mason.

"We spent a lot of time on it," Cunningham told me of the scene where Pope and an abducted Tom simply talk about their lives. "Noah is an exceptional actor. He's brilliant. And it was a collaborative effort... there was a helluva lot of dialogue and it was a feather in my cap they thought I could handle it.

There were no aliens running. No fancy editing or explosions to cover it up. It was just actors doing what actors do."

Since that introduction, we've learned a lot more about Pope: he's an ex-con and a proud culinary expert.

"In another lifetime, Pope could have been a professor," Cunningham said. "He's very intelligent. But through different choices he made in life, this is where he's ended up."

Will viewers eventually discover what those choices were? Will we learn more about Pope's background? Yes, the actor teases, but Falling Skies excels at slowing revealing tidbits about its characters.

"He may soon be cooking with other ingredients," Cunningham offered when asked what's ahead for this renegade. "And there may be an explosive outcome."

Falling Skies airs a new episode tonight. Return to TV Fanatic as soon as it concludes for a detailed review.